Air conditioning and industrial chilling systems are typically configured with arrays of chiller tubes. Boilers and other commercial or industrial equipment may also include fluid tubes to provide various heat exchange functionality. Such tubes must be serviced to prevent or reduce fouling and corrosion and such servicing typically involves utilization of both mechanical and fluid treatment on the interior surfaces of the tubes. The fluid treatment itself often includes application of chemical cleaners or inhibitors. In some cases, different tools may be utilized for each of the mechanical agitation, chemical application, and powered fluid cleaning or washing. While some tools available in the industry provided combined solutions that integrate mechanical agitation and powered fluid washing, such tools may suffer from various deficiencies. Some of these deficiencies relate to the coupling of a rotary tube cleaning drive shaft and tube cleaning fluid conduit to a tube cleaning machine. Several previous attempts at addressing coupling deficiencies are described below.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,940 (hereinafter “DeMoss”) discloses a “pipe coupling [that] includes a pair of hub members and a pair of coupling members surrounding the hub members”, as well as a “plurality of projections [that] extend outwardly from [one] coupling member and are received in receiving recesses in the other coupling member.” DeMoss, Abstract. DeMoss also describes that “[r]elative rotation of the coupling members moves the projections behind locking flanges into a locking position [and a] pivotally mounted lever on each connecting member is received by a locking recess on the other connecting member when in the locking position.” Id.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,821,048 (hereinafter “Talesky”) discloses “[a] ferrule for coupling an attachment to a rotary hand tool unit of the type that has a housing with a nose portion through which a rotary output shaft extends.” Talesky, Abstract. Talesky further describes that “[t]he nose portion has at least one groove extending generally circumferentially around at least a part of the nose portion, so that a groove portion is located on opposite sides of the nose portion [and that] [t]he ferrule includes a generally how cylindrical body with interior and exterior surfaces with an open mounting end portion and a smaller opposite end portion to which the attachment is mounted.” Id. Talesky further describes that “[t]he open mounting end portion fits on a nose portion of the housing when the ferrule is coupled to the rotary hand tool” and that “[t]he ferrule further includes at least one internally protruding rib on the interior surface for aligning the ferrule in a least one predetermined angular position, and at least two latches mounted on the ferrule,” and where “each latch having an open and a closed position wherein the ferrule is locked into the nose portion when the latch is in the closed position.” Id.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,746,532 (hereinafter “Nalagatla”) discloses “[a] stapling reload assembly for a circular stapling instrument [that] includes a casing, a staple holder, a staple driver, and an anvil assembly.” Nalagatla, Abstract. Nalagatla further describes that “[t]he staple holder is attached to the casing[,] and [t]he staple driver includes a driver alignment surface[,] [t]he staple driver is receivable within the casing and is configured to move within the casing from a pre-fired position to a fired position.” Id. Nalagatla further describes that “[t]he anvil assembly includes an anvil base surface, an anvil alignment surface, and a staple forming surface[,] [and] [t]he anvil base surface is configured to move from an open position away from the casing to a closed position adjacent the casing.” Id. Nalagatla further describes that “[t]he anvil alignment surface is configured to mate with the driver alignment surface, to rotationally align the staple forming surface with the staple holder, when the anvil base surface is in the closed position.” Id.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,383,047 (hereinafter “Alexander”) discloses “[a] locking device [with] a threaded pressure fitting having clamp members, [where] a clamping load is applied to the clamp members to clamp the clamp members to one another.” Alexander, Abstract. Alexander further describes that “[e]ach clamp member has a first insert and a second insert held captive thereto, and each insert has a bearing face adapted to cooperate with and bear against part of the pressure fitting,” where “at least the first insert associated with each of the clamp members is angularly moveable relative thereto to permit the bearing face of each first insert to be orientated differently to the bearing face of the associated second insert.” Id.